


Clowder

by tanktrilby



Category: Gintama
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 20:17:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5388881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanktrilby/pseuds/tanktrilby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kagura and Shinpachi take care of a lazy unappreciative cat they name Gin-cat. Then they meet Gin-cat's friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clowder

Shinpachi, who cranks the windows open to let the smell of feet out from the apartment, looks down and spots the fattest cat he has ever seen.

He beams. “Ah, Kagura-chan! It’s Gin-cat!”

Then he gets elbowed out of the way by Kagura, who stands on her tiptoes to lean as far out as she possibly can, shouting excitedly: “It’s true! Gin-cat! Oiii, Gin-cat! Do you like the Super Sleeper 3000 I made for you?”

Gin-cat ignores them both. Gin-cat (actually a normal-sized cat with extremely fluffy fur) always makes it a point to show that he’s only here for the snacks and the Super Sleeper 3000 (actually a cardboard box stuffed with a wadded up kimono with blue swirls that its owner had turned the apartment upside down trying to find) and barely puts up with the company.

“Now, now, Kagura-chan,” Shinpachi says. “Let Gin-cat sleep in peace. Look, his bed’s in a nice spot. I bet he likes the sunlight.”

“Tch, who do you think put it there, bastard? You think the Super Sleeper 3000 moves by itself, huh? This is the problem with your generation,” Kagura says. She turns back to the window with Shinpachi’s neck clamped in the crook of her elbow. “You think everything will fall into your laps- _whoa.”_

“Ka-gura-chan?”

“Check it out, Shinpachi,” Kagura says, awed. “Gin-cat is _moving.”_

Shinpachi stops choking to death to stare. “You’re right! That’s amazing, I’ve never seen him move before! What’s he going to do?”

“Gin-chan!” Kagura calls. She sticks her head back inside for a breathless moment. “Gin-chan, Gin-cat is going to do something unbelievable!”

“Aa?” comes the reply from the next room; next, the sounds of the fridge being rummaged vigorously. “Don’t call that fatball that, oi, that ugly monster looks nothing like me. And who ate the rest of the pudding, huh? Which one of you wants to die that badly?”

“It’s no use, Kagura-chan,” Shinpachi says. “Gin-san doesn’t like Gin-cat. He gets a weird look on his face when he sees him and starts muttering about getting his tail ripped off.”

“Sheh, his loss,” Kagura says. She pops her head back out and stamps her feet happily. “Well? What’s he done?”

“Nothing really,” says Shinpachi. “Just sort of…scooted over. He’s really slow, isn’t he. What a lazy cat.”

“Don’t say bad things about Gin-cat’s charm point!” Kagura says. “Gin-cat, I believe in you! I believe there are really old snails with creaky knees who move faster than you!”

“That’s not a compliment, oi,” Shinpachi starts to say, adjusting his glasses, when Kagura flails so hard she actually falls out.

“ _What are you doing Kagura-chan,”_ Shinpachi half-shrieks.

Dangling from the grip Shinpachi has on her ankle, Kagura shouts, “Look, Shinpachi, _it’s_ _Zura-cat!”_

Shinpachi pulls her inside. “That’s dangerous, Kagura-chan,” he says. He glances outside, where a smaller black cat is seated daintily on the fence, surveying Gin-cat with familiar gravity. “I thought he looked like Katsura-san, too, so I tied that scarf around his neck yesterday. He’s much more active than Gin-cat, though. He nearly scratched me.”

“Oooh, way to go, Zura-cat!” Kagura tells him. “Show Shinpachi who’s boss!”

Shinpachi sighs. It’s drowned out when Zura-cat meows, low and measured.

In response, Gin-cat snarls. His teeth are bared, ears against his head; it’s blatantly unfriendly. His bushy tail grows about three times bushier, swiping back and forth in agitated arcs.

Shinpachi starts.

Kagura’s eyes are wide and bewildered. “Shinpachi, don’t Zura-cat and Gin-cat like each other?”

“It was our fault for assuming things,” Shinpachi says. His stomach feels a little queasy. “Come away from there, Kagura-chan. Let them fight it out.”

Kagura shakes her head, distressed. “No, what if Gin-cat gets hurt? I have to stop them from- _oh._ ”

Shinpachi follows her line of sight.

Zura-cat has advanced on Gin-cat, and their paws are in the air, claws extended. The blows they’ve exchanged haven’t left any traces on their fur. Now they’re just looking at each other, calculating. It looks- the bloodless fight, the hissing- it all looks-

Well, familiar.

“I think…” Shinpachi hesitates. “I think they’re saying hello.”

Kagura blinks, first at him, then down at the cats.  Gin-cat is lounging on the Super Sleeper 3000 again with deliberate nonchalance, not looking at cat-Zura, who’s sitting very straight with his ears twitching now and again.

“Earlier,” Shinpachi says, still a little disbelieving, “Gin-cat was _making room._ He smelled Katsura-san-cat down the street and-”

On cue, Zura-cat _mrow_ s a question at Gin-cat, who responds by moving his paws aside so that the spot where the kimono scrunches pleasingly is free.

Zura-cat gets in the Super Sleeper 3000 with a bemused air, and settles.

Kagura begins to beam. She looks at Shinpachi, who can’t help grinning back.

Watching the cats -now beginning to unconsciously curl around each other- Kagura remarks, offhandedly, “I can’t wait till they have Gura-cat and Pachi-cat babies.”

Shinpachi chokes.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
